


If You Dare

by disapparater



Series: Halloweens [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Double Dating, F/M, Halloween, Haunted Houses, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-29
Updated: 2013-10-29
Packaged: 2017-12-30 20:36:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1023112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disapparater/pseuds/disapparater
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry has the brilliant idea of going on a double date in a haunted house.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If You Dare

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [day seven](http://hd-writers.livejournal.com/258163.html) of hd_writers [Tricks for Treats](http://hd-writers.livejournal.com/253604.html) using all three prompts.

Harry was a genius.

Draco had been trying—and failing—for two years to set Pansy up with a suitable boyfriend. He was great at finding nice, decent and interesting guys, but what he always failed to do was take into account whether Pansy would like them or not. She never did. Draco always managed to find really fun and outgoing blokes, and Pansy never saw them more than once or twice.

It was at Harry's own birthday party when he figured it out. It was a month or so later that Harry realised _how_ he'd figured it out, and what that could mean. It had taken him half an hour to convince Draco to help him arrange this double date. At first Pansy hadn't been pleased that it clashed with the annual Halloween party, but they had managed to convince her that the date would be early enough in the evening that she would still have time to make it to the party afterwards—hopefully with her date.

So Harry found himself standing on the steps of a haunted house, as the sun went down, with Pansy's date, waiting for Draco and Pansy to show up.

Draco had mentioned the Haunted House a few weeks ago. It was an abandoned Muggle property that some entrepreneurial wizards had taken over and opened up over the Halloween period. Hermione and Ron had gone with Greg and Millie the week before and said how good it was; each room charmed with its own unique horrors. Apparently Ron had been scared enough cling to Hermione for most of the night. Harry had insisted upon the house for the double date, hoping that the horrors might have the same affect on Pansy and her date.

The house was large, gothic and looking eerier in the falling light. It had a large 'keep out' sign on the gate, which was obviously just for show, because Harry had felt the tingle of Muggle-repelling spells as they had approached the property.

They had been waiting for about 10 minutes when Harry heard the gate creak and looked over to see Draco and Pansy walking up the drive towards them. Draco looked extremely unsure about how things were going to go, but Pansy seemed calm, and possibly even a little eager, as she approached.

“Pansy,” said Harry, thinking he should get straight to the introductions, “you remember Percy; you met him at my birthday party.”

“Of course I remember.” Pansy held out her hand for Percy.

“Percy, this is Pansy—your date for the evening.”

“Pleased to see you again.” Percy took the offered hand, but seemed unsure whether to shake it or kiss it, instead settling for an oddly angled shake and a slightly awkward bow. When Pansy's reaction was light giggle, Harry knew he'd been right.

While Pansy and Percy got more acquainted, Harry greeted his boyfriend with a kiss. It didn't last as long as Harry would've like, because Draco was still nervous about the date.

Pulling out of the kiss quickly, Draco quietly said, “I'm still not sure about this. A Weasley, Harry. And not just any Weasley—Percy. I just can't fathom it.”

“You have too many expectations of who Pansy _should_ date; you're not looking at who she _wants_ to date. All the guys you've tried to set her up with have been too...”

“Good?” Draco supplied.

“I didn't like to insult Percy like that, but yeah. Pansy's a strong character, but that doesn't mean she's suited to dating strong characters. The way I saw her interacting with Percy on my birthday—Draco, she _likes_ being the strong, dominant one; she doesn't want a bloke that's going to overshadow her.”

Draco pursed his lips, obviously wanting to contend what Harry had said. “As if anyone could overshadow Pansy.”

Harry smiled at Draco's affection for his friend. “I know _you_ believe that, but maybe Pansy doesn't.” He looked over at Pansy and Percy (mainly Pansy) chatting easily. “Maybe Percy is the kind of guy she wants.”

Draco huffed, but didn't dispute it. Harry was sure Draco was already warming to the idea of Pansy liking Percy; he was more annoyed that it had been Harry's doing to set them up and not his.

“Are you guys ready to go in then?” Harry asked, not wanting to stand on the steps all night.

Breaking away from their conversation, Pansy and Percy both nodded.

They approached the front door and Harry tried the handle. It was locked.

“So knock,” was Draco's suggestion.

So Harry knocked.

Slowly, the door began to open. The hinges moaned a little, but were quiet enough. The room beyond was dark, but once the door was halfway open, lights along the walls began to flicker on one at a time. Simultaneously a disembodied voice could be heard from within the house.

“ _Who is that knocking at my door?  
Do you realise what is in store?  
Within each room there lies a scare.  
Knock and enter, if you dare..._”

As the voice faded, the door came to a stop and the house seemed to wait for the four of them to go in.

“Well, that was a little creepy,” said Percy. “I wonder how worried I should be.”

“Don't worry; I'll keep you safe,” said Pansy, grasping Percy's hand and leading the way in.

Harry turned to Draco and raised an I-told-you-so eyebrow. Draco ignored it and followed Pansy and Percy inside.

“Shall we start here?” asked Pansy, standing in front of the first door on the left of the hallway.

“Why not?” replied Draco, who then grasped the door knob and swung the door inwards.

Inside the room was... empty. The only light came from one window and was bright enough to illuminate the lack of anything in the room.

“This is terrifying,” Draco deadpanned. Harry and Pansy each hit him on an arm.

“Perhaps...” Percy began.

“Yeah, Perce?” Harry encouraged.

“Well, it's just that the verse the... house? ...spoke as the front door opened... It said to “knock and enter” the rooms. Maybe the charms on the rooms are only activated when someone knocks.”

“You're so clever!” Pansy beamed and Percy blushed at her words.

Harry smiled, but managed to stifle his laugh when he saw Draco rolling his eyes.

“Let's try it, then.” Harry reached for the door and drew it closed. “You do the honours, Perce.”

Tentatively, Percy reached out and knocked. When nothing seemed to happen, he shrugged self-deprecatingly and opened the door.

Something had happened. This time, the room was pitch-black, and sounds could be heard. Harry couldn't decide if it sounded like an agitated bird or a angry cat.

“Ladies first?” asked Percy nervously. Pansy looked pleased and strode straight into the room.

Harry and Draco ushered Percy in and the four of them stood in the darkness. The black became absolute when the door swung shut. At the sound of the door slamming, all hell broke loose. Instinctively, Harry reached for Draco's hand and they both gripped tightly. All around them, what Harry know realised were bats, flew chaotically back and forth around their heads. The madness made Harry want to bring both hands up and swat the bats away from his head, but he held steadfast to Draco's hand—as did Draco to his. With his spare hand he covered his face as much as possible.

Time seemed impossible to measure in the chaos, but at some point Draco's hand seemed to pull on Harry's and Harry worried they were going to lose contact. He gripped on tighter, but Draco kept pulling. Harry realised he was trying to get Harry to move with him; Harry let himself be led.

Eventually, light filled Harry's vision as he and Draco spilled out of the door and back into the hallway. The door slammed shut behind them, and they realised they were alone.

“Where are Percy and Pansy?” Harry asked, looking up and down the hall.

“Still in there, I expect.”

“We have to go back.” Harry turned back to the door, but Draco gripped his arm and pulled him back.

“They'll be fine; they'll get out. Hell, maybe they already did and they went on without us. I have no idea how long we were in there, but we are _not_ going back in. One of those bastards almost scratched my eye out.”

Harry took a deep breath. “Okay.” Because really, this wasn't a real haunted house, it was a gimmick to scare people and make money. It wasn't supposed to harm people. “Let's carry on without them. Percy's got Pansy to look after him; they'll be fine.”

“Exactly,” Draco agreed.

They carried on down the hall and around the house, knocking on random doors and entering strange scenes and horrors. The rooms they entered varied in theme and intensity, some were more fun-scary while others were outright scary-scary.

One room contained a graveyard which, when the door closed, slowly became alive with the living dead, clawing their way out of their graves with their eyes set on Harry and Draco.

Another room showed a man chopping meat with a large cleaver. On closer inspection the meat he was cutting could clearly be discerned as human; a hand missing a few fingers and part of a skull that still contained an eyeball. As Harry and Draco moved cautiously around the room—around the man with the cleaver, in the centre—nothing happened. Harry assumed the man would attempt to chop them up as well, but he simply watched silently as they made their circular trip around the room. It was about two-thirds of the way around that Harry really noticed the human body parts on the chopping board. The three-fingered hand was slowly trying to crawl away across the table and the eye in the skull fragment was blinking imploringly at them.

There was a room full of clowns doing tricks, which might have scared some people, but even with their faces painted in menacing masks of horror, Harry and Draco could only smile as they watched them perform.

One of the oddest rooms had tripped them up as soon as they had tried to enter and they fell... and fell... and fell. Harry once again grasped Draco's hand as they seemed to fall through utter blackness together for ages. Until out of nowhere they landed on the floor, still only a few feet away from the door.

At one door, Harry and Draco stood watching giant spiders race from one side of the room to the other and, by mutual unspoken agreement, closed that door without entering the room.

Another room seemed to hold nothing but a young boy crying in the far corner and Harry—being Harry—instantly rushed in to comfort the boy. He could hear Draco calling him a bloody idiot from the door, but it was already too late. Before Harry had even reached the boy, the boy had looked up, an evil smile now plastered on his face. His eyes hadn't been on Harry, but looking over Harry's shoulder. As Harry turned around, he saw a hoard of angry looking ghosts shoot out of the wall towards him. Thankfully Draco pulled him out of the way and out of the door before Harry could have felt the utter coldness of the ghosts engulf him.

Harry's favourite room by far was one of the last they entered. It was a large room, large enough to hold balls in, because that's what was happening once they had knocked and gone inside. The ball reminded Harry of last year's Halloween masquerade. The difference with this ball was that no one was wearing masks. It was impossible for them to wear masks, in fact, because everyone in the room was headless. Instead of being disturbed by the sight, Harry had laughed with joy. He'd grabbed Draco by the hand once again and they had danced their way around the room among the headless guests.

Neither Harry nor Draco had mentioned Pansy or Percy all night after they had abandoned them in the room full of bats.

Soon enough, they were standing in front of the final door, on the right hand side of the hallway next to the front door. They debated over who should have the honour of opening the last door until Harry got fed up of Draco mockingly mimicking Percy by saying, “Ladies first,” and motioning for Harry to open the door. With a retort of, “Pretty people first,” Harry whipped in and opened the door without remembering to knock.

Harry instantly wished he'd remembered to knock.

Inside the room they found Pansy and Percy, their faces joined at the lips and the latter's hand far too far up the former's skirt. What Harry _really_ hadn't needed to see was Pansy grabbing Percy's hand and yanking it up her skirt even further.

Before Harry had had much time to think—or mentally scrub the image in front of him from his memory forever—Draco cried out from beside him.

“This is truly the most horrific thing I've seen all night!”


End file.
